


Home, James

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Getting Together, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:35:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27819112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: Lester is a stubborn man but Ryan has the patience of a saint.
Relationships: James Lester/Tom Ryan
Comments: 5
Kudos: 5





	Home, James

**Author's Note:**

  * For [knitekat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knitekat/gifts).



> Written as a Christmas present for the lovely knitekat who gave the prompt “at the end of the day”

James Lester toed off his shoes under his desk and muffled a groan of delight that he was able to finally, after a hellish twenty hours attending an emergency Cobra meeting, sit down and relax without having to answer a single bleeding question.

He closed his eyes and sank back into his chair. The ARC was blissfully quiet, everyone out putting out literal fires started by several meteorites from however many years ago having come hurtling through anomalies in the UK, USA, France, Germany and Spain.

Casualties thankfully were at a minimum but the anomaly cat was well and truly out of the bag and intergovernmental cooperation was always a headache when the Americans were involved. At least he and his fellow Europeans had managed to sneak away for a whisky and a proper conversation after the American representative had been summoned back to his embassy.

“You should be at home,” Ryan said and Lester slowly opened his eyes to find the other man slouched in the doorway. He didn't think he could recall a single time when he had seen Ryan looking so relaxed.

“Pot, kettle,” Lester replied, closing his eyes again.

“Just finishing your precious paperwork,” Ryan said, an obvious grin colouring his voice. “Becker's got everything under control in the field.”

“Wonderful,” Lester said, only half sarcastically. Becker was proving a worthy addition to the team, considering that Ryan would never completely regain the use of his left arm after his adventure in the Permian.

Ryan moved further into the room and sat down on Lester's new sofa, an addition that Lorraine had overseen against Lester's objections. He claimed it would encourage loitering.

“What are you doing?” Lester asked.

“Waiting for you to let me drive you home,” Ryan replied. “The day's over. The crisis is under control. You don't need to be here.”

Lester wanted to argue. He wanted to say that of course he was needed here, at the heart of everything, that's where he belonged. Instead he found himself nodding and slowly pulling himself upright, forcing his eyes open to stare curiously at Ryan. He felt the same stirring of his body he'd first felt a few months ago, when Ryan had been forced to press up against him as the team ran out to an anomaly, Connor nearly tripping over himself in his haste to get by Lester and into the car. It had taken them both a moment to step away and Lester had long considered what the look Ryan had given him had been all about.

It was true that Lester had become invested in Captain Ryan's recovery once Stephen and Cutter had found him alive against all the odds and, after berating Cutter for his truly appalling medical knowledge, he had insisted that Ryan get only the best treatment. And if that had included regular visits by himself to the man's hospital bed when he was sure that no one he knew would see him and when he was certain that Ryan himself would be asleep, it was only because he was worried that Ryan might sue the Anomaly Project for negligence.

Not that he had ever said as much to anyone else because he was well aware that it was the flimsiest of excuses, but it gave him the confidence to pretend that nothing out of the ordinary was occurring when the reality indicated different.

“I'm driving you home,” Ryan said, standing up and moving away as if it was a fait accompli. Lester supposed that it was.

“I have a driver,” he noted, though there was no heat to it and Ryan ignored him.

They walked carefully down to the underground car park and Lester climbed wearily into the passenger seat of Ryan's Jeep. Despite his best intentions as soon as he had put on his seat belt he found himself drifting into a troubled sleep that only made him feel even more tired.

“Lester – James – we're here.”

Lester blearily opened his eyes and found himself staring at Ryan's mouth. Before he could make up his mind exactly what he wanted to do about that Ryan was stepping backward and helping him out of the car.

Lester managed to coordinate himself enough that he could unlock the front door and lead Ryan into the study.

“Not the bedroom?” Ryan asked, voice low and, to Lester's increasingly hypersensitive ears, particularly seductive.

“Not on a first date,” Lester said before his brain could catch up with his tongue.

“Is that what this is?” Ryan asked, and before Lester could deny anything Ryan carefully helped Lester on to the sofa and then got down on to his knees to take off Lester's shoes.

“I don't know what this is,” Lester admitted.

Ryan smiled and leaned forward, pushing Lester's knees apart and slotting himself neatly in between them. “It's whatever you want it to be,” he said, before kissing Lester softly on the lips.

Lester tried to complain as Ryan moved away but Ryan smiled and pressed a finger against Lester's lips.

“You're in no fit state to be making complicated decisions.”

“This isn't a complicated decision,” Lester said, moving forward with more speed than Ryan had been expecting and pulled him into a deeper kiss that left Ryan flatteringly breathless.

“Even so,” Ryan said, biting at his lower lip as they finally moved apart, “a cup of tea and then bed seems more appropriate.”

Lester reluctantly agreed. Much as he wanted to he could barely keep his thoughts in order and he certainly wasn't up for anything energetic that the younger man may have in store for him. He sank back into his seat and listened as Ryan turned on the gas fire and then headed towards the kitchen. The pottering about with mugs and kettle, the sliding open of drawers and seeking out for sugar and tea bags was a pleasant background noise that he hadn't realised until this moment that he missed. It was so comfortingly domestic and Lester knew he avoided coming home so much precisely because he missed the domesticity of a life with a partner and that some, though certainly not all, of his brusqueness could be laid at the foot of a loneliness that had been with him even before his wife left with the children.

As Ryan came back into the room carrying mugs on a tray with some biscuits on a plate that Lester had forgotten he even owned, something deep within him seemed to unfurl. And as Ryan sat next to him and pressed himself against Lester's side with a soft kiss to Lester's temple Lester let all of the day's worries go, they would be tomorrow's problems and for once he wouldn't have to face them alone.

He turned to Ryan and drew him into a soft kiss.

“Biscuits and tea,” Lester said, “certainly worthy of a morning blow job.”

Ryan, who'd been in the process of taking a sip of tea, choked on his drink and had to cough a few times to hide his surprise. Lester chuckled to himself, pleased at the effect his words had had. If nothing else, the end of the day was a definite improvement on the beginning. And the day after was already destined to be even better.


End file.
